12th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles 1918

[lisalade]

Hi everyone

I've discovered that my Great Uncle - Thomas Walker (regiment number 50213) a rifleman - was killed in action on the 25th October 1918 whist serving for the 12th Btn Royal Irish Rifles. He is buried at Harelbeke New British Cemetary, Harelbeke, West-Vlaanderen in Belgium. He was previously with the rifle brigade.

Can anyone give me any information on which battle he may have been killed at and where?

I will be grateful for any information possible.

Thank you in advance

Lisa

[ColinY43]

Hi everyone

I've discovered that my Great Uncle - Thomas Walker (regiment number 50213) a rifleman - was killed in action on the 25th October 1918 whist serving for the 12th Btn Royal Irish Rifles. He is buried at Harelbeke New British Cemetary, Harelbeke, West-Vlaanderen in Belgium. He was previously with the rifle brigade.

Can anyone give me any information on which battle he may have been killed at and where?

I will be grateful for any information possible.

Thank you in advance

Lisa

Hi Lisa

The Long Long Road (see Top Left reveals:

10th (Service) Battalion (South Belfast)

Formed in Belfast in September 1914 from the Belfast Volunteers. Moved at first to Newcastle and disbanded on 20 february 1918 but otherwise record same as 8th Bn.

and for the 8th ...:

"8th (Service) Battalion (East Belfast)

Formed in Belfast in September 1914 from the Belfast Volunteers. Moved to Ballykinlare and came under orders of 107th Brigade in 36th (Ulster) Division.

July 1915 : moved to Seaford.

October 1915 : landed at Boulogne.

29 August 1917 : amalgamated with 9th Bn to form 8/9th Bn.

7 February 1918 : disbanded in France.

9th (Service) Battalion (West Belfast)

Formed in Belfast in September 1914 from the Belfast Volunteers. Record same as 8th Bn.

There is info on this site under " Harlebeke New British Cemetery, Belgium, Research into the men buried there for an Archive" which may give you some more cluse but Ypres and german cemetery relocations of 1920 are mentioned.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Colin

[ColinY43]

Lisa

Go a bit further and you'll find, under 36th Division and 108 Brigade, more info about 12th RIR including a map showing their location in late October 1918. See:

http://www.1914-1918.net/36div.htm

Colin

[ColinY43]

Lisa

My last offering for you.

It looks as if he probably died at Ooteghem, an action on 25th October 1918.

Google the name Ooteghem and you'll find more!

Colin

[Desmond7]

Here you go - 12th Rifles were the old Central Antrim Volunteers - by 1918 they were a drastically changed unti from early war - maybe 35% of ranks were not of Irish origin .. nature of the war etc.

On the 23rd, as the enemy appeared to be withdrawing, the advance was continued all along the line behind a screen of scouts. A squadron of French dragoons, attached to the Division, made a spirited dash for the Escaut crossing at Berchen, but came under heavy machine-gun fire from the second line of hills, which it was evident the enemy held in force. He had, in fact, withdrawn a mile or so during the previous night. On the extreme left a company of the 1st Irish Fusiliers, entering Heirweg, was vigorously counter-attacked and driven out with the loss of several prisoners. Eventually a liaison post was established by British and French at the station, just west of the hamlet. On the right the 1st Rifles had captured Vossenhoek and Hutteghem. The advance had been well maintained. The men of the 107th Brigade were now, however, weary, and the battalions very weak, It was decided to relieve the Brigade that night by the 109th. This was carried out without event.

The following day was given to reorganization. Two batteries of the 173rd Brigade had crossed the river on the 22nd, the remainder were now brought over in readiness to support an attack upon the ridge. This took place at 9 a,m. on the 25th. The 109th Brigade on' the right had two battalions, the 1st and 2nd Inniskillings, in line; the 108th one only, the 12th Rifles.

The advance was covered by a barrage moving at the rate of a hundred yards in three minutes. On the right not much progress was made, in face of heavy machine-gun fire. Loss of direction, due to fog and the smoke-screen of the enemy barrage, caused considerable difficulty. Eventually a line east of Hutsbosch was consolidated.

On the left the 12th Rifles made an advance of half a mile, in face of the most determined opposition encountered since the fighting at Hill 41. Every house was held, and the Germans fought their machine-guns desperately. No less than ten were counted in ten separate houses at the day's end. The advance would have been greater had the French supported it on the left, but their line had not moved beyond Heirweg. The work of the 12th Rifles on this day was probably the best performed by that battalion, amid much good work accomplished since the beginning of offensive operations.

Repeatedly the men had charged in upon houses defended by machine-guns, and bayoneted the detachments.

The 9th Division had captured the twin crests of Ingoyghem and Ooteghem, and it was determined that the 109th Brigade should, the same afternoon, assault that of Kleineberg, to their north-east, which would have brought the right of the Division, its left drawn back through circumstances beyond its control, into the van of the advance. A new barrage, starting at 5 p.m., was hastily planned and admirably carried out. Unfortunately, however, orders did not reach the battalions soon enough, and, at the appointed hour, three companies only, two of the 1st Inniskillings and one of the and, went forward to the attack. And it must be remembered that companies were now never more than fifty strong.

The crest was actually reached, but the advance had been on a frontage so narrow that it was impossible to maintain the position. A farm-house at the foot of the slope was, however, held and consolidated

The 26th was a day of calm, broken when night fell by tremendous shelling, above all with gas, which seemed almost to have superseded high explosive and shrapnel in the enemy's armoury. Nor was a further advance contemplated on the 27th, owing to the complete exhaustion of the troops. A wounded prisoner had, however, reported that it was the enemy's intention to withdraw at once to the Escaut, and our outposts were on the qui vive for signs of such a movement. About a p.m. that afternoon they were rewarded. Small bodies of the enemy were seen retiring from the Kleineberg Ridge. Instantly patrols of the 109th Brigade were pushed forward and occupied it. And so this last goal of the 36th Division, after three years' campaigning, was reached without a shot fired.

The 108th Brigade, in attempting to follow suit, met with a certain resistance, but the 9th Irish Fusiliers had the railway "halt" west of Anseghem before dusk. Attempts were made to push onward to the river, but it was found that the Germans still held Bergstraat with machine-guns, and no further progress could be made. It was quite evident that they were not going to fall back on the Escaut till forced to do so. Their policy, directed with great skill - for never did the work of their divisional and regimental commanders shine more brightly than in these days - was to give up what could not be held, and no more, thus husbanding till the last the declining moral of their infantrymen, and delaying the advance as long as might be.

A resistance more rigid, with the German soldier in his present temper, would inevitably have led to a break through, somewhere or other, and a consequent rout.

The bolt of the 36th Division was now shot. Weary flesh was at last proclaiming itself master over spirit unwearied. The only thing that had kept the men so long on their legs in this winter warfare was the excellence of the accommodation behind the line. Such a campaign in devastated country would have been unthinkable.

Even as it was, they had been subjected to great hardship and exposure, while the constant gas shelling had had some effect on many hundreds who had not left the ranks. The casualties since the beginning of offensive operations numbered over three thousand.

Of these, six-sevenths were wounded, and a very large proportion, most fortunately, suffering from light wounds from machine-gun bullets, or a temporarily disabling whiff of gas. But not more than a tenth of these casualties, or of a certain sick wastage, had been replaced by reinforcements. As a consequence battalions in action had seldom more than two hundred or two hundred and fifty bayonets.

Other arms had suffered in less, but still in high proportion, while the loss of transport animals was becoming serious. All preparations were made for a renewal of the attack, but on the afternoon of the 27th came a wire from the X. Corps to the effect that the Division would be relieved by the 34th, and would come under its orders the following day, being withdrawn for rest and reorganization. Soon after dusk on the 27th the 101st Brigade of the 34th Division relieved the two weak Brigades of the 36th in the line, which began their march back to the area about Courtrai. Though little they knew it, their part in the war was finished.

[lisalade]

Thank you both very much for the information. When you read things like this it makes it all very real. He was only 19 when he died and I have just purchased a photograph of his grave stone from the CWGC.

Kind regards and thanks again

Lisa

[von Smallhausen]

Hello Lisa,

I know it's an old post maybe you don't look to GWF. But if you want to I can send you photographs of Heirweg, Sterhoek , Kleineberg, the area wher your greatuncle got KIA.

I live in the neighbourhood.

Kind regards from Flanders,

Jef